If You Knew Her was a delicious thriller of a book which managed to both keep me guessing and touch me in equal measure.
Told through a variety of viewpoints it fed the stories of the character to me in such a way that my view of them was clear. Firstly Frank hauntingly locked into a body that won't communicate yet hears everything. Then Alice, locked into a body that won't give her the one thing she so desperately craves, and finally Cassie, the one who joins the two of them together - there's a touching echoing sadness that unites them all in the same way. Some of the scenes are so achingly poignant that I couldn't help but be moved by them - always wishing that there would be a happy ending for each of them. This of course was helped by the almost poetical style of writing that Elgar used to convey the longing and hurt they suffered - there really were some beautiful turns of phrases that wouldn't have been out of place in a tear-jerker.
I didn't so much care about where the story was taking me, I was just all too happy to go along for the ride. I found it just so wonderfully structured that I was always wanting to read just one more chapter.
I totally, thoroughly enjoyed it. Great.
